UP dissidents stick to their demand

LUCKNOW: In an obvious hardening of stance, the dissident legislators declared on Wednesday that henceforth they would not hold any talks with the state leaders and would persist with their demand for withdrawal of the BJP ministers from the government.
The rebellious attitude was the outcome of a strategy session held at the OCR as a sequel to the show-cause notice issued to four legislators by the state leadership earlier in the day.The notice, which was issued to Ganga Bhakt Singh, Ramashish Rai, Ajit Singh and Bharat Tripathi, asked them why they were airing their grievances against the party through the media instead of the party forum. A minister described the quartet’s act as a gross misconduct which cannot be condoned.
A spokesman of the dissidents said that the “present crisis was the gift of state leaders to the party so they would not accept anything less than pulling out of the BJP ministers from the Mayawati-led government and offering support from outside as the BSP was doing at the Centre.
The dissidents said that they would now apprise Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and party president Venkaiah Naidu of their view points.
Briefing newspersons, the dissidents said that “blowing hot and cold� would not do. They claimed that 28 MLAs and four MLCs had attended the meeting held at Bharat Tripathi’s residence. Ramashish Rai said that the state leaders were a desperate lot. On the one hand they were sending feelers with messages of “ goodwill� and on the other they were issuing threats. This would not serve any purpose, he said.
“If talking to media was anti-party activity, the ministers were equally guilty,� Rai said, adding that they were compelled to convey their grievances through the media only when nobody was ready to listen to them in the party. Ganga Bhakt Singh said that they were in the BJP Bachao Samiti and would hold talks only with the central leaders.
At the same time, BJP state chief Vinay Katiyar said that he was neither elated nor dejected over his attempts to save the organisation from destruction. Recalling a story from the epic Ramayana, he said, that as a “bhakt� of Hanuman, he should make every effort to save the Lanka. But he hastened to said that he did not know whether he would succeed in his attempt or court failures.
Katiyar who had a discussion with Singh after the dissident’s meeting, said the response was positive but left everything unto God. He said thatirrespective of the outcome, he would ensure that dissidence did not occur in the future.
The state leaders refrained from taking action against dissidents even after the expiry of their 24-hour deadline. Katiyar said said that no “disciplinary action� had been taken at the moment.